Donald Trump has scored few foreign policy wins with his transactional approach. A peace deal between Israel and the UAE is a feather in his cap. U.S. President Donald Trump announces a peace agreement between Israel and the United Arab Emirates, Washington, DC , 13...
When I arrived in Hong Kong half a century ago, it was just starting its explosive growth. Now it’s caught again in the middle of a big-power dispute. Before Hong Kong’s old airport closed in 1998, it had just one runway, and airliners used to skim low...
The Uighurs are not the only ethnic minority in China. Beijing’s repressive tactics reflect fears a separatist movement could threaten the state. Uighurs in Hotan, northwest China’s Xinjiang Uighur Autonomous Region, 6 April 2008 (AP Photo/Eugene Hoshiko) Last...
South Asia is no stranger to political dynasties. Sri Lanka’s ruling family is prompting worries about human rights and ethnic tensions. Sri Lankan Prime Minister Mahinda Rajapaksa (L) and his younger brother, President Gotabaya Rajapaksa, in Colombo, Sri Lanka, 9...
Once ruled with an iron fist by a dictator, oil-rich Libya is now ravaged by war. With foreign powers meddling, a political solution is badly needed. A sniper fires towards Islamic State militant positions in Sirte, Libya, 21 September 2016. (AP Photo/Manu Brabo)...
The author, Marouane El Bahraoui, is a Student Ambassador at the African Leadership Academy, a News Decoder partner school. He spent seven months researching Libya, working closely with News Decoder editors to sharpen his focus and add authority to his reporting. What started as an incipient interest in the North African country matured into a nuanced view of a highly complex geopolitical situation. El Bahraoui’s story caught the admiring eye of the U.S. ambassador to Libya, who contacted the young author to chat about Libya and Morocco, El Bahraoui’s home country. “Who thought that a U.S. ambassador would read my article?” El Bahraoui said. This story shows the kind of potent reporting that a determined and curious student in our network can produce for a global audience.
Disaster was awaiting Lebanon, its finances in tatters. Now a huge chemical explosion has compounded the crushing challenges facing the tiny but pivotal nation. Beirut’s port after the explosion, 5 August 2020 (EPA-EFE/WAEL HAMZEH) It is hard to imagine a...
Students see headlines all day long and have a good sense of the big news events around the world. But when something happens far away, they don’t always understand why it matters to them, because they are young and also because harried real-time news outfits don’t always connect the dots. When a chemical explosion tore through Beirut in August, media organizations around the world flashed photographs, videos and headlines capturing the anguish and destruction. In 900 words, Alistair Lyon goes further, taking readers through Lebanon’s dire circumstances and explaining why it matters to all of us. No region of the world is more complex or more important than the Middle East, and Lyon — a former Middle East diplomatic correspondent for Reuters — offers an exemplary synthesis of the tangled forces at work in the volatile region.
Italy is all chaos, while Britain epitomises civility, right? Think twice, because COVID-19 has helped to turn clichés upside down. British Prime Minister Boris Johnson, right, and Italian Prime Minister Giuseppe Conte in London, 4 February 2020 (Chris J...
We foreigners often scoff at Americans. But like it or not, the world always pays rapt attention to the U.S. election, and this year is no exception. President Barack Obama, right, presents the Presidential Medal of Freedom to Barbra Streisand, White House, 24...
The EU has been criticized for inconsistency towards asylum seekers. But some European nations have admitted refugees — who are now paying back. Asylum seekers attend a German language course in Vienna, Austria, 23 February 2016. (EPA/CHRISTIAN BRUNA) The grand...
Black Lives Matter protests in the U.S. can spur change around the world. Youth can play a key role in the fight for equality, says a young African educator. Young people around the world can learn from the Black Lives Matter movement in the United States to spur...